Columns

In 1966 when I graduated from Presbyterian College, the United States was behind Russia in the space race. Russia had developed Sputnik, the first Earth satellite.
The National Defense Education Act was funded, and a number of us received scholarships under this program so that psychologists could be educated and then sent into the community. The sole purpose of this law was to help identify gifted and talented science students so that the United States could catch up in the space race. Our country is currently behind internationally in science and math.

The Daily News of New York City, with letters that covered the front page of the Dec. 3 edition, boldly proclaimed, “God Isn’t Fixing This.” The statement was made in the wake of yet another mass killing, this one in San Bernardino, Calif., in which 14 people were killed and more than a dozen others wounded.
This headline is sheer lunacy and outright hypocrisy.

Editor’s note: On Nov. 9, Lancaster County Council voted 4-3 to deny a rezoning request by McClancy Seasoning for a 21-acre tract in Indian Land. More than 100 of McClancy’s neighbors had protested the rezoning, saying it would devalue their homes. On Nov. 23, the council voted to reconsider that decision, sending the proposal to the planning commission for more study.

As a citizen of Lancaster County and Indian Land, I am troubled by the Lancaster County Council’s Nov. 23 decision to reconsider the McClancy rezoning issue.

Sherrill Mullis, Joe’s Uncle Sherrill:
When Hurricane Hugo hit Lancaster in September 1989, Joe was out there with the police, rescue squad or driving his own car in the early morning, checking on people or roads in the city and county.
Am I Joe’s uncle? Not really, but I am Charlotte’s uncle. He seemed to like calling me Uncle Sherrill even though I am only a few years older than him. It tickled me.

Below are the remarks I made as president of the Lancaster Breakfast Rotary on May 9, 1990, when the club designated Joe Shaw a Paul Harris Fellow, the highest award a club can confer on persons who exhibit the ideal of “service above self,” the motto of Rotary. Joe was not a member, just someone worthy of recognition in the club’s eyes. How much did he accomplish in the 25 years since!
The material is a bit dated, but the heart of Joe Shaw is reflected in these remarks, which described him then as we remember him now.

Who are your people? Where did you grow up? Are you from around here? Where did you go to school?
These are the familiar questions that come up early in encounters with people we don’t know. In one sense, these are opening lines in polite conversations. In another sense, these are initial probes in discovering what tribe they belong to.
If the new person we meet is African American, Asian, Hispanic or they are all decked out in orange with tiger paws – these are outward signs of their tribal identity that are clear to everyone.

I am writing to urge your readers to support a group of nearly 30 Christian men from the Lancaster area who are preparing for a mission trip to Honduras.
On Jan. 16, the group will return to Santa Elena, Honduras, to continue its partnership with Mission on the Move (MOM). MOM in Honduras is proposing to help Honduran children find a home in a foster-care type of environment with Honduran families.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) on Nov. 25 issued a new 40-year operating license to Duke Energy for the Catawba-Wateree Hydroelectric Project. It became effective Nov. 1, 2015.
The new license allows the company to continue operating its 13 hydroelectric stations and 11 associated reservoirs located along the Catawba-Wateree River in North Carolina and South Carolina.

The election is over, and John Tecklenburg will be the new mayor of Charleston.
John has been a good friend of mine for nearly 40 years. We first met when we were both in college in Washington, DC. Wte lived a couple of blocks apart in Charleston; our children were born about the same time and as they grew up, we were as likely to have each other’s kids at the dinner table as our own. John got me involved in lots of his community projects and I did the same. I was a part of his campaign from the beginning – through all the ups and down.